Sunday, December 14, 2008

Déjà vu: Chistmas Pancakes and Failed Santa Hats

What happens when a foodie gets sick of food?

Said foodie neglects her blog and the blogging community because she doesn't want to see, hear, or read anything that has anything to do with food. The weight gain quest is going great but I am not too excited about cooking or taking pictures of food these days, so I don't have super cool Christmas treats for this post. Instead, it's a déjà vu post with more pancakes and failed Santa hats.

1- Whisk dry ingredients together.
2- Whisk together the pumpkin puree and the liquid ingredients. I needed 1 1/4 cup of soy milk, but you might want to start with 1 cup and add more later if you need it.
3- Add the liquids to the dry mix and stir until smooth.
6- Lightly coat a nonstick skillet with cooking spray and preheat.
7- Spray the inside of a metal gingerbread man cookie cutter with cooking spray and place it on the hot skillet. From now on you should use tongs to handle the hot cookie cutter!
8- Using a large cookie scoop, pour a scoopful of batter inside the cookie cutter and cook over low-medium heat until the bottoms are golden brown.
9- Carefully and using your tongs, pull the cookie cutter up. If you didn't spray it enough, you might need to use a knife to separate the edges from the cookie cutter.
10- Flip the pancake over and cook until the other side turns golden brown.

* You will need at least 1 cup of milk, how much more you might need depends on how soft your pumpkin puree is. They should be soft enough to easily pour the batter inside the cookie cutter but not too soft that most of the batter leaks out of the bottom of the cookie butter.

This recipe makes 10 gingerbread-man pancakes using a 10 inch long cookie cutter.

I used the last bit of batter to make a gingerbread house pancake.

It would be so pretty decorated with candy! Candy for breakfast? Well, it's just one day!

Anyway, here are the failed Santa hats. They don't resemble hats so much when they are made with raspberries, and the buttercream brims (thank you Aimee!) should be really tiny for this to work. I definitely like my Strawberry Santa Hats better. By the way, the cupcakes are the basic vanilla cupcakes from VCTOTW.

River, I totally know where you're coming from in re: not wanting to look at food, cook, etc. Honestly, I really don't like cooking at all, because I am around food so much! But I do it because if I need to eat, I want it to be good, ya know? And also honestly, when I read peoples' blog posts, I like reading the commentary more than looking at the food photos (except when the food photos are artistic or creative, like your pancakes, because then I feel like I'm looking at art, not food. And you KNOW I really love artistic-looking food. Hello cupcakes!).

sounds like the weight gain is a success. I can see why you have had enough of thinking about food. Doesn't sound like you have much time to think about anything but eating.The pancakes are adorable. After a previous post I have my heart set on making cute little Christmas shaped pancakes for day of breakies.

Congrats on the 3 pounder!!!Wheee. Hopefully your body is getting the idea that it needs to pack you up since you've been eating more. Supposedly our bodies wants us to stay fat for survival....which is what I'll be if I really am your next door neighbor.

Ya gotta stop with all the amazing baked goods! KIDDING! Keep it coming...that's what I love you for! Yes, you deserve the award so much, you got it TWICE!

ps: your clothes can't be under the radar cause YOU aren't;)pss:placements were from crate & barrel ages ago.

Those gingerbread pancakes are so cute. My husband wouldn't appreciate the work it would take to make them all cute like yours (times like this when I wish I had kids) but I think I'll still make them - just round like normal.

Your poor, poor thing... I hate when I'm not hungry too! What's a foodie to do when appetite fails?! So sad. But you have managed to mesmerize me with your creations once again. Pumpkin-ginger pancakes sound incredible, and I do not think the raspberry santa hats are a failure! They are really, really cute; they look so nice on top of those cuppies.

Please don't get sick of food! Congrats on your weight gain quest. Three pounds in three weeks is quite an accomplishment and maybe a little pause will give you back your strenght.Cutest pancakes ever, btw.

nice job on 3 pounds total so far, River! that rocks! i know you said you're working on munching on a lot of yummies right now (and holding off on the cardio so you can gain a bit), but i just wanted to ask if you've thought about maybe some weight training when you're ready to workout after the holidays?! i ended up putting on a few pounds of muscle with some easy weight training (just lifting weights & such 3 days a week) - just wanted to make a suggestion, as it worked for me alright! :) i know you love yoga - but i didn't know if you had looked into weights as well.

heyy river!! i know what you mean by getting completely "fooded out." sometimes, cooking and taking pictures of everything gets tiring. i don't know how some bloggers post every meal they've eaten in a day!! i feel like my post would take up my whole page.

good job on your weight gain!! that's great progress. whenever i started cycling, i gained weight because my leg and butt muscles were getting so big. i couldn't fit into my pants anymore haha

super job on the weight gain river!!! it takes a lot of work to even gain one pound! i can relate, i rarely have an appetite but i must make sure i keep eating :) i hope you can now relax and enjoy the holiday season!

the ginger-pumpkin pancakes are so cute! i would love to eat breakfast at your house!

As for the weight gain quest, I think you outta stop with the healthy snacks (like nuts and trail mix bars) and start gorging on more cute Christmas cookies, cakes, and pies! Of course, this is a selfish request...I just wanna see the pictures.

You're not alone in blog neglection! Those pancakes are uber cute. And I think you're "failed" santa hats aren't really a failer.... they're cupcakes which can never fail in my mind.Glad to hear the weight gain is going well!

Welcome to Wing It Vegan! I am River and this blog is where I keep track of my favorite recipes. Hopefully you will find some new favorites here as well! Please, don't run away scared if you're not vegan! I promise I won't throw rotten beets or snarky judgments at you. MORE